Markwayne Mullin The Republican won the 2nd District seat, which is being vacated by Oklahoma’s only Democrat.

Instead of focusing on House Republicans' efforts to reshape Medicare and curtail spending that helps many in the district, where some counties are chronically poor, Wallace ran a campaign focused on attacking Mullin for accepting plumbing contracts paid for with stimulus money and for not being protective of water in eastern Oklahoma.

Former state Sen. Kenneth Corn, the chairman of the 2nd District for the Oklahoma Democratic Party, said Friday that he thought Medicare and Social Security would have been more prominent in the campaign, though he stopped short of criticizing Wallace's approach.

Corn predicted a close election and said it would be tough for some older voters who have been voting for Democratic lawmakers all their lives to cast ballots this time for a Republican.

“I think at the end of the day, it's going to be decided on just who voters are most comfortable with,” Corn said.

Tom Montgomery, the 2nd District chairman for the Oklahoma Republican Party, said Mullin was “scrambling” to counter ads run by Wallace, but ultimately would prevail.

“Unless something changes drastically, I predict Markwayne will win,” Montgomery said Friday. “What we're hoping is that they'll vote for (Mitt) Romney and just go right down the line” and vote for other Republicans.

In the 1st congressional district, Republican Jim Bridenstine, of Tulsa, who knocked off incumbent Rep. John Sullivan in the primary, is facing Democrat John Olson, of Tulsa. Olson has made a credible run at the tea party-backed Bridenstine, but faces an uphill battle in a district that hasn't sent a Democrat to Congress since 1984.

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Chris Casteel began working for The Oklahoman's Norman bureau in 1982 while a student at the University of Oklahoma. After covering the police beat, federal courts and the state Legislature in Oklahoma City, he moved to Washington in 1990, where...